---

name: install-and-project-setup description: "Install DeepLabCut, launch the GUI or lite mode, create and inspect projects, and summarize project layouts safely." disable-model-invocation: true metadata: disco-role: operating license: LGPL 3.0

install-and-project-setup

Use this sub-skill when the task is about installation choices, launcher behavior, project creation, adding videos, or safe inspection of a DeepLabCut project.

Use this sub-skill for

• choosing a DeepLabCut install flavor or backend
• checking whether dlc or python -m deeplabcut opens the GUI or prints the lite notice
• creating a standard, multi-animal, or 3D project
• adding videos to an existing project
• inspecting config.yaml and the project tree without writing files

Route elsewhere

• Frame extraction, labeling, and training-dataset creation → data-labeling-and-training-datasets
• Training, evaluation, analysis, and export → pytorch-training-evaluation-inference
• Tracking, stitching, and re-identification → multi-animal-tracking
• Filtering, outlier refinement, labeled videos, trajectories, and 3D post-processing → postprocessing-3d-video-exports

Key facts

• Supported Python is 3.10–3.12.
• The installed console script is dlc, which points to deeplabcut.__main__:main.
• python -m deeplabcut follows the same launch path.
• If GUI dependencies are present, the launcher opens the GUI; if PySide6 is missing, it prints the lite notice instead.
• deeplabcut.cli exposes a click command group for command discovery, but it is not the console entry point.
• Project setup APIs:
  • deeplabcut.create_new_project(project, experimenter, videos, working_directory=None, copy_videos=False, video_extensions=None, multianimal=False, individuals=None)
  • deeplabcut.add_new_videos(config, videos, copy_videos=False, coords=None, extract_frames=False)
  • deeplabcut.create_new_project_3d(project, experimenter, num_cameras=2, working_directory=None)

Bundled references

• references/project-workflows.md
• references/configuration.md
• references/troubleshooting.md

Bundled script

• scripts/summarize_dlc_project.py

Keep the routing narrow

Stop at project setup and inspection. Do not continue into frame extraction, labeling, training, tracking, filtering, or 3D calibration beyond what is needed to create or summarize the project skeleton.